Giving Thanks

 Hi everyone,

Today I have the privilege of introducing Angela Campbell.  Angela Campbell is a fellow Carina Press author and a talented writer. Her book, “Cry Wolf,” is available wherever e book are sold and is on my top five must read books. Every time I read a snippet, it moves up. Angela is also a very generous person, always ready with a congratulations or good job to her fellow authors.  Find out more about her and her book at www.angelacampbellonline.com.

Here's Angela!

First of all, I’d like to think Shawna for allowing me to be a guest here today. And if you haven’t read her book “Altered Destiny” yet, go buy it, now — hurry! It’s terrific!

When Shawna announced she’d like to feature a month-long blog campaign of authors expressing their thanks, I was all over that like ink on paper! I’ve always been a firm believer that everyone is blessed in some way, no matter how down on his luck she is or what hardships she faces.

I’ve certainly had my fair share of negative experiences. I lost my mother to breast cancer when I was 12. Hardest thing I ever had to face. I lost my best friend’s mother (my second mom) to breast cancer years later. I could go on and on about the other people and pets I’ve lost or my money woes, etcetera, etcetera. But I try not to walk around dwelling on the negative. I know there are far too many people walking around with much heavier burdens than mine!

I prefer, instead, to count my blessings — and I have many.

As Thanksgiving approaches, what am I thankful for? Would it sound silly if I said everything? Even those bad experiences have benefited me in some way. I’ve been blessed with a wonderful family, and I wouldn’t trade the friends I have for anything. It all has made me a stronger person and, dare I hope, a better writer?

When I’m writing a story, I plot a moment I call the hero (or heroine’s) epiphany. You know — that moment we all have at some point where we make an important decision about something. Usually, for romance writers, it’s the moment where our stubborn hero realizes he can’t live without the heroine, or vice versa. As for me, I’ve had many head-smackin’, D’oh! epiphanies in my lifetime. There’s one that stands out above most though.

I was 15, depressed and still missing my mom. Then one of my brothers announced he and his wife were pregnant. Wow, I was 15, and going to be an aunt. I mean, how weird.

But as my sister-in-law grew more pregnant, I felt hope bloom in my chest again. Wow, I was going to be an aunt. Pretty soon there would be a little kid running around, and I very much wanted to be a part of that kid’s life.

I prayed every night that the baby would be a girl, even though the male gene was predominant in our family. I can’t even remember why I so badly wanted a niece rather than a nephew. Everyone kept telling me, “Don’t get your hopes up, Angie. It’s probably going to be a boy.”

The day finally came, and my father picked me up from school with the news the baby had been born. And it was a girl!

As I stood in the hospital peering through the nursery glass, squinting and trying to figure out which wrinkled pink-blanketed baby was ours, I made a vow that I would never dwell on the negative again. Suddenly, I didn’t feel so alone anymore. I secretly like to think that my niece was God’s little gift to me, to remind me that life is too precious and too short not to see the beauty in it. And maybe even a reminder that He is up there, listening when we need Him most.

For the last 21 years (gah, I’m old), my niece and I have been BFFs, and my brother even blessed me with a nephew I adore along the way, too. Now my niece also wants to be a writer, possibly inspired by the fact that her crazy aunt who has been struggling years to get published finally did.

And oh yeah, I’m pretty grateful for that too!

So now that I’ve overshared waaay too much for one blog post, feel free to overshare back! What are you most thankful for, and why? ‘Tis the season to be thankful, after all!